Social Networking?

I have been told I am the queen of networking when it comes to job related networks. When I decided to change careers I interviewed 20 - 25 librarians in many different fields - public, corporate, university - none of whom I had known when I started my research. They were friend or colleagues of people I knew, then colleagues of people I interviewd, etc. etc. I enjoy it and I'm pretty good at it and I have to say that I think the face to face contact is incredibly important. So, I'm a little "creeped out" as my daughter would say by this whole social networking thing. Who knows who's reading my profile??? What kind of information about myself do I really want to send out into the universe via the Internet??? On top of that I tried to search for people I might know. I may have been doing it wrong but it looks like you have to know their special name (like I'm SageSusan). I would have to contact them to find out what their user name is, right? I can't look for people I haven't seen in a long time - like a friend from high school - just to try and reconnect.

I'm glad I did this to have a little taste of what it's like. My daughter resisted for quite some time but finally got a Facebook account this fall. I know it's a really big thing among students in her high school. By the way, the school found out about a big drinking party among some of the athletes at the school because someone posted photos on Facebook and the athletes were not allowed to compete for a period of time.

Stutter Stepping Again...

Just finished my first instant messaging chat. I'm amazed at how easy all three of the new technologies have been. No reason at all to be intimidated. It's fun, too! But I have to say that I don't get why someone would instant message instead of picking up the phone and talking with someone or if the person is in the same office, getting up and walking to their desk or office. Probably a sign of my generation and my social work training but I'm much more comfortable speaking with a person.

Did call my husband to see if he has a Google account - he doesn't. Will make sure he gets one so we can try this out while we're at work.

I've done a few Meebo reference questions. I think the reference interview is a bit more difficult in terms of figuring out what the patron really wants to know. I'm missing all the visual cues that help me interpret what's going on. Also, we think so much faster than we talk and even faster than we type so it seems to take a long time to go through the process of identifying the information need.

Another Stutter Step

When I read that we were to add five feeds to our Google Reader I couldn't begin to imagine what I would add. I don't surf the Net - I use the computer for work, mostly. I went to the New York Times site and saw their list of RSS feeds and I was off and running!

I love to plan vacations - all kinds of vacations. I now have the RSS feeds for the NY Times and the Chicago Tribune Travel sections as well as a NY Times Escapes section. Then I realized I could add the Book section of the Times and the Movies section of the Tribune. This was starting to be fun!

I'm still not sure how much I will use this because I don't spend lots of time on the Net. But perhaps I'll start scanning the travel articles.....

I Can Acutally Use This Stuff!

A new stutter step...

While I was creating my blog I started to think about a way I might use it in my personal life. My daughter was part of a student exchange with a girl her age in Germany. My husband and I went to Germany when the exchange program was finished and spent a week with her German family. We got along famously and we invited them to come to Chicago next summer.

The father is a librarian and is in charge of a huge photo archive in the state of Bad Wurtemburg. He definitely has computer skills and so does the daughter. So, I thought it would be great fun to create a blog where we could plan their trip. I showed blogger.com to my daughter; she created the blog (taking far less time than me...) and we're off and running!

Tis done

Creating the blog was easy - actually reading about blogs took lots and lots more time. The reading provides helpful information and a context creating my own blog. I kept thinking of ways we might be able to use this with youth. For example, students at Old Orchard Junior High are reading galleys of some junior high fiction and then they write reviews which are published in a "booklet" format. Wouldn't it be great to create a blog for their reviews and then invite other junior high students at Old Orchard to post. Hmmm. Does someone have to monitor the blog to ensure appropriate content?

I like The Shifted Librarian and have bookmarked it. She had posted a number of links for info about gaming - again something I think has real potential for our junior high latch key kids who come to the library after school.